Comments about real estate, economy, and issues that affect my job as a Realtor.
Lately, of great importance is the display of the most important
PRE-CONSTRUCTION PROJECTS IN SOUTH FLORIDA.
My name is Henry B. Nathan
I am a realtor at United Realty Group.
My phone # is 954-296-6741

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Thursday, November 13, 2008

In many previous posts, I have advocated for a scrutiny of our local governments.

Our property taxes have not decreased substantially, and have even increased sometimes, in spite of the crashing reductions of real estate values.

Our cities and counties tenaciously oppose every move in the sense of controlling their budgets. Property values go down? They raise their “millage” (tax percentage applied on the property value to determine the actual tax.) Tax reduction mandates? No problem, they start charging for previously free services, or increase their present fees.

If they were half as diligent in spending our money, as they are charging us, perhaps we could avoid these excesses.

I read this in the South Florida Business Journal – Nov. 11, 2008:

Wackenhut billings come under scrutiny in Broward

Broward County auditors are raising red flags over how county agencies kept tabs on nearly $6 million in billings by Wackenhut Corp. for security services last year.

In a report to be presented to county commissioners on Wednesday, county auditors noted several problems with the way Wackenhut invoices have been processed.

Specifically, the report noted that county personnel were not reviewing and validating daily entries on security logs that document hours worked by guards. The audit also found that there was no evidence that hours billed were hours actually worked.

County Auditor Evan A. Lukic said the decision to review the county’s oversight of Wackenhut grew out of news reports earlier this year that alleged the Palm Beach Gardens-based security company was overbilling Miami-Dade County for services that were not performed.

“We were concerned about the allegations we heard and whether we were possibly experiencing the same thing here,” he said. “We wanted to look at it from how are we controlling the contract and administering it.”

At this point in the auditing process, Lukic said, there was no evidence Wackenhut engaged in any wrongdoing. However, based on the audit’s findings Lukic said his department will take a closer look at payments to “make sure that guards who we are paying for are present.”

In June 2005, BrowardCounty entered into a three-year agreement with Wackenhut to provide security services. Payments for fiscal years 2005, 2006 and 2007 totaled more than $14.8 million.

In fiscal 2007, BrowardCounty’s Aviation Department topped the list with $2.1 million in security services billings by Wackenhut. The county’s facilities maintenance division paid out $1.66 million to Wackenhut, and the county’s library division was billed nearly $633,000.

The report found that during a one-week period, the libraries division paid 233 hours of overtime for security guards and found no evidence that Wackenhut provided the required written notification and payroll documentation to substantiate the overtime payments.

When queried by the South Florida Business Journal about the auditor's findings, Wackenhut issued the following statement: "We've worked closely with facilities management through the audit department to insure compliance and to improve our processes."

Questions also have been raised about matching guard qualifications to pay rates. In some instances, the audit raised concerns about guards with lesser qualifications billing at a higher rate, resulting in overcharges.

In an Aug. 22 letter, Broward’s director of the facilities maintenance division advised Wackenhut President Drew Levine that he would now require the company to provide documentation that links guards’ qualifications with their job classifications.

In the meantime, Lukic is asking the Broward County Commission to direct the county administrator to come up with procedures to ensure that billings are validated, that the guards’ qualifications match their job descriptions and that overtime charges are substantiated.

In May, a Miami-Dade County audit found that Wackenhut overbilled the county by as much as $6 million over three years for services it did not provide to Miami-Dade Transit, and then falsified records to cover up the over charges.

In its response to that audit, which Wackenhut published on its Web site, the company said it has cooperated with the county’s investigation, but “continues to question the audit methodology.”

Wackenhut said a lawsuit by a former guard, who accused the company of padding its bills, has caused the increased scrutiny.

“It is Wackenhut’s belief that county entities … have been placed under undue pressure and influence by unsubstantiated allegations in this ongoing disputed litigation,” it stated.

Miami-Dade continues to review Wackenhut’s response to determine what actions should be taken, county spokeswoman Suzy Trutie said.

***********

My opinion:

Wackenhut has the audacity of "questioning" the “audit methodology”. Am I understanding this? Of course not. Am I agreeing to this? Of course not. Do I believe the hypocritical “findings” of the Miami-Dade and BrowardCounty authorities three years after the facts? No way. Now that the money has been spent, they "discover" that the services they paid for were not even provided. And we are talking millions of dollars. What about all these people we are paying to take care of our money? Good question.

By the way, how many millions will this Marlins stadium cost the tax payer? Was it 800 million, 700, 900, a billion? God knows. And we will know in a few years, after the bills are paid and we find again ourselves in a big hole. But don’t worry, they will find a way of raising money to cover it all. Your money. And my money too; subsidizing a business, which market value will increase exponentially after they get their free stadium.

, Terraces of Turnberry boasts a long list of luxury amenities and luxurious residential features. Inside the guarded grand entry gates, you fill find a state of the art health club and spa. Its facilities include an outdoor heated swimming pool with an poolside grill, a fully equipped gym and fitness center, sauna and steam rooms, and outdoor tennis and racquetball courts. Within the Terrace tower, residents can enjoy a piano room and a social lounge as well as an on site convenience store.

A wonderful architectural accomplishment, the Terraces at Turnberry feature sleek, oversized terraces extending prominently out of the units for the best viewson the Intracoastal Waterway. Recent renovations has kept this buildingas one of

the most coveted condobuildings in Aventura. The state of the art health club and spa are some of the best equipped we have seen. Outdoor sports, such as tennis and racquetballs, wonderful piano room and lounge, an onsite convenience store, add to the great features of the Terraces.

The amenities include:

Tennis Courts

Racquetball Court

Pool

Spa

FitnessCenter

Club House

Concierge

BusinessCenter

Restaurant

Storage facitlities

24 hour security.

Aventura has become one of the most famous destinations in South Florida, with easy access to beaches, word-class shopping at the Aventura Mall, beautiful parks, excellent public and private schools. Conveniently close to both Miami and Fort LauderdaleAirports, with many houses of worship, restaurants, clubs, the new casino Gulfstreamracetrack and a short drive to the shopping and entertainment atBalHarbour and Hollywood.

If you are looking for a condo in the Aventura area, we at www.condo-southflorida.com can assist you andhelp you find the home, vacation home or investment property, that you are searching for. Our great experience in South Florida Real Estate and our friendly attention will make all the difference

Monday, November 03, 2008

At the dawn of a new presidential term, and with no intentions of venting out my political preferences, I find it important to spread around interesting ideas which can help explain what has gone wrong in our country and our economy and what new directions are being suggested to rebuild our nation’s wealth and success and regain our position as world leaders.

A provocative book that have drawn my attention is:

The PredatorState:

How Conservatives Abandoned the Free Market and Why Liberals Should Too.

By James K. Galbraith.

Without endorsing its contents ( I am far from being an economist) I found some answers to the agonizing questions of how to save capitalism and a free society after the cataclysmic events that threatens to throw us back to depression-like poverty and hardship.

Here is a synopsis of The Predator State:

The cult of the free market has dominated economic policy-talk since the Reagan revolution of nearly thirty years ago. Tax cuts and small government, monetarism, balanced budgets, deregulation, and free trade are the core elements of this dogma, a dogma so successful that even many liberals accept it. But a funny thing happened on the bridge to the twenty-first century. While liberals continue to bow before the free-market altar, conservatives in the style of George W. Bush have abandoned it altogether. That is why principled conservatives -- the Reagan true believers -- long ago abandoned Bush.

Enter James K. Galbraith, the iconoclastic economist. In this riveting book, Galbraith first dissects the stale remains of Reaganism and shows how Bush and company had no choice except to dump them into the trash. He then explores the true nature of the Bush regime: a "corporate republic," bringing the methods and mentality of big business to public life; a coalition of lobbies, doing the bidding of clients in the oil, mining, military, pharmaceutical, agribusiness, insurance, and media industries; and a predator state, intent not on reducing government but rather on diverting public cash into private hands. In plain English, the Republican Party has been hijacked by political leaders who long since stopped caring if reality conformed to their message.

Galbraith follows with an impertinent question: if conservatives no longer take free markets seriously, why should liberals? Why keep liberal thought in the straitjacket of pay-as-you-go, of assigning inflation control to the Federal Reserve, of attempting to "make markets work"? Why not build a new economic policy based on what is really happening in this country?

The real economy is not a free-market economy. It is a complex combination of private and public institutions, including Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, higher education, the housing finance system, and a vast federal research establishment. The real problems and challenges -- inequality, climate change, the infrastructure deficit, the subprime crisis, and the future of the dollar -- are problems that cannot be solved by incantations about the market. They will be solved only with planning, with standards and other policies that transcend and even transform markets.

A timely, provocative work whose message will endure beyond this election season, The Predator State will appeal to the broad audience of thoughtful Americans who wish to understand the forces at work in our economy and culture and who seek to live in a nation that is both prosperous and progressive.

The cult of the free market has dominated economic policy-talk since the Reagan revolution of nearly thirty years ago. Tax cuts and small government, monetarism, balanced budgets, deregulation, and free trade are the core elements of this dogma, a dogma so successful that even many liberals accept it. But a funny thing happened on the bridge to the twenty-first century. While liberals continue to bow before the free-market altar, conservatives in the style of George W. Bush have abandoned it altogether. That is why principled conservatives -- the Reagan true believers -- long ago abandoned Bush.

Enter James K. Galbraith, the iconoclastic economist. In this riveting book, Galbraith first dissects the stale remains of Reaganism and shows how Bush and company had no choice except to dump them into the trash. He then explores the true nature of the Bush regime: a "corporate republic," bringing the methods and mentality of big business to public life; a coalition of lobbies, doing the bidding of clients in the oil, mining, military, pharmaceutical, agribusiness, insurance, and media industries; and a predator state, intent not on reducing government but rather on diverting public cash into private hands. In plain English, the Republican Party has been hijacked by political leaders who long since stopped caring if reality conformed to their message.

Galbraith follows with an impertinent question: if conservatives no longer take free markets seriously, why should liberals? Why keep liberal thought in the straitjacket of pay-as-you-go, of assigning inflation control to the Federal Reserve, of attempting to "make markets work"? Why not build a new economic policy based on what is really happening in this country?

The real economy is not a free-market economy. It is a complex combination of private and public institutions, including Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, higher education, the housing finance system, and a vast federal research establishment. The real problems and challenges -- inequality, climate change, the infrastructure deficit, the subprime crisis, and the future of the dollar -- are problems that cannot be solved by incantations about the market. They will be solved only with planning, with standards and other policies that transcend and even transform markets.

A timely, provocative work whose message will endure beyond this election season, The Predator State will appeal to the broad audience of thoughtful Americans who wish to understand the forces at work in our economy and culture and who seek to live in a nation that is both prosperous and progressive.